The state budget bill passed Tuesday seems to take aim at Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel and the $1.84 million his office spent on public service announcements featuring the treasurer and Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer.
(Screenshot from youtube.com)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The state budget bill passed Tuesday by the House contains a provision that might have kept ads featuring Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel and Ohio State University football coach Urban Meyer off the air last year.

Instead of hiring a media firm to place the ads, as most officials and agencies do, Mandel's office bought airtime from individual TV stations. Each purchase amounted to less than $50,000 -- 19 within $1,000 of that amount -- and thus were not subject to additional scrutiny by a quasi-legislative panel, a February cleveland.com report found.

State lawmakers said at the time they were concerned Mandel was using a loophole to avoid legislative oversight.

GOP amendments

Currently, state expenditures for unbid contracts or individual purchases exceeding $50,000 in one fiscal year must be approved by the Ohio Controlling Board. The little-known panel is composed of six lawmakers and a chairman appointed by the governor.

House Republicans amended the state budget bill to require board approval for all state advertising "for the same purpose that, in the aggregate, exceeds $50,000."

GOP House leaders also cut $150,000 from Mandel's $250,000 a year budget request to advertise the program going forward. No cuts were made to the advertising budgets of attorney general, auditor and secretary of state.

Democrats have been calling it "the Mandel amendment;" Republicans have shied away from admitting Mandel was the target.

Mandel spokeswoman Mandi Merritt said the office reviewed the language and had no problem with it. Merritt said the budget cut was a "sensible reduction" given cuts made statewide.

Rep. Keith Faber, one of five Republicans who sponsored the amendment, said the amendment was aimed at all state officials, not just Mandel.

The legislature allocated $2 million a year for Mandel to implement and administer the STABLE program, which offers tax-advantaged investment accounts for disabled individuals. Similar to a 529 college savings plan, individuals and family members can contribute to the accounts, and earnings are tax-free if spent on qualifying expenses.

State law requires the treasurer's office to develop "marketing plans and promotional materials to publicize" the accounts.

Faber said the ads helped increase participation, but the controlling board should have been allowed to weigh in.

"We want transparent, efficient government and the thought was state agencies and state government have tried to figure out how to get around that controlling board reviewing process," Faber said.

All of this is not to say Mandel's PSA campaign would have been rejected by the controlling board.

Mandel spokesman Chris Berry noted that 20 state agencies, including the treasurer's office, spent more than $50,000 on advertising last year, according to the office's OhioCheckbook.com tool. Berry referred questions about whether those were unbid purchases to the individual agencies.

None of those agencies bought individual ads the way Mandel's office did, according to a review of state budget data.

For example, the Department of Higher Education paid marketing company IMG College $151,200 last year to advertise the state's 529 college savings plan. The department made a controlling board request in June 2015 because it was an unbid contract renewal, and the spending was approved.

The department also pays Columbus-based company SBC Advertising $2.2 million a year to promote the program. The department chose the company through a competitive request for proposal process and has sought Controlling Board approval for the expenditure each biennium.

Secretary of State Jon Husted also ran public service announcements featuring himself last fall in the run-up to the November election. Husted's office brought its $549,411 request before the Controlling Board in July and was approved.

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